And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
Genesis 2:20
The information around us
Informare / Latin / – originally meant transmission of knowledge or content.
Information is all around us. We humans, constantly receive, process and provide information. In the past 20th (technical) and today’s 21st (information) century, many information technical devices have been created to help human activity. Ordinary electromechanical calculators, the first computers with electronic lamps, electronic calculators with semiconductor elements, computers with semiconductor chips, smartphones, to modern quantum computers.
Information technologies are a wide class of activities and disciplines related to the collection, storage, management, transmission and protection of information.
Information itself is an abstract concept that can be viewed from different aspects and objects. Information can be encoded into various forms for transmission and interpretation (for example, information may be encoded into a sequence of signs, or transmitted via a signal). It can also be encrypted for safe storage and communication. In order for the activities and disciplines related to information to be carried out, it must be structured. The basic information units (individual pieces of information) are called data.
Datum / Latin / – a single piece of information, as a fact, statistic, or code; an item of data. Also called sense datum. Epistemology – the object of knowledge as presented to the mind.
Data processing is a process of registration and performance of operations on data – collection, storage, conversion, protection, dissemination of data.
The concept of information technology is more general than the concept of data processing and includes the methods related to processing and application of data.
The information, in turn, is the result of data processing. Data organized in a usable form.
Basic units of information presented in digital form with a binary number system
1 bit = 0 or 1 basic logical data state
1 Byte = 8 bits
1 KB (kilobyte) = 1024 b = 1000 ^ 1 Bytes
1 MB (megabyte) = 1024 KB = 1000 ^ 2 Bytes
1 GB (gigabyte) = 1024 MB = 1000 ^ 3 Bytes
1 TB (terabyte) = 1024 GB = 1000 ^ 4 Bytes
1 PB (petabyte) = 1024 TB = 1000 ^ 5 Bytes
1 EB (exabyte) = 1024 PB = 1000 ^ 6 Bytes
1 ZB (zetabyte) = 1024 EB = 1000 ^ 7 Bytes
1 YB (iotabyte) = 1024 ZB = 1000 ^ 8 Bytes
A binary digit is a digit of a binary number.
Each element representing a binary bit is called a bit cell. It is the elementary information unit bit. Binary numbers are written by a series of bit cells forming a bit network.
The data rate is measured in bits-per-second (bps).
A computer is a computing machine consisting of individual modules whose general purpose is to process data presented in digital form.
Modern computers are electronic automatic devices operating on the principle of program control. They perform the functions of management, processing, storage and data transfer.
Each computer is made up of two main sets – Hardware and Software. The term computer system unites three components – hardware, software and human – user.
The computer architecture reflects the most general principles of interaction of hardware and software in the organization of the computational process. Computer architecture means this set of computer parameters that are available to programmers (computer instruction system, types of memory addressing, types of memory, etc.)
Computer architecture
Computer device
In 1945, the mathematician John von Neumann, working at Princeton University in the United States, formulated the concept of consistent architecture with his assistant Goldstein.
According to it, the computer consists of three main blocks, interconnected by information buses:
– processor – CPU (Central Processor Unit);
– memory – RAM (Random Access Memory);
– peripherals – Keyboard / Display / Mouse / Printer.
James Pomerence, Julian Bigelow, von Neumann and Herman Goldstein
The computer bus consists of many parallel wires, each of which at one time carries one bit (part of an address, instruction or data).
Central Processor Unit
The CPU has specialized registers for management information:
– program counter (PB) – keeps the address where the next instruction for execution is located;
– instruction register (RI) – contains a series of bits representing the current instruction: the operation code and the addresses of the requested data.
– the flag register (F) – its individual bits contain different data for states in the processor (interrupt, overflow, transfers, etc.).
Classification
a) According to its bit size – the length of the machine word (the microprocessor processes several bytes, called machine word). Different amounts of memory are used to store data values with different degrees of precision. The commonly used sizes are usually a power of two multiple of the unit of address resolution (byte or word).
Examples: 16-bit Intel 8086, 32-bit PowerPC, 64-bit IA-64.
b) According to the purpose:
– Specialized, usually built into control sites – cars, airplanes, electrical and electronic appliances, etc.
– Universal, the most popular representatives are personal computers. They are developed on the basis of universal microprocessors and their capabilities are constantly being improved.
RAM (Random Access Memory)
Memory is a device with which the processor directly exchanges information, repeatedly and at very high speeds during data processing.
The motherboard serves to integrate the components of a computer system and to synchronize their actions. It has a processor, memory, buses and slots (outputs for connecting peripherals). Reliability, speed and the possibility of expansion and modernization depend a lot on this board.
Software
A programming language is a set of semantic constructions and syntactic rules (resembling human language) that is used to represent algorithms in a form that is easy to process by a computer.
An algorithm written in a programming language is called a computer program.
Algorithm
A complete, accurate and unambiguous prescription for solving a certain class of tasks with input data that can change within certain limits.
Algorithm properties:
Definiteness – the description of the algorithm is unambiguous. It must be clear and unambiguously define the actions to be taken. Repeated execution of the same algorithm with the same initial data results in the same result, regardless of who executes the algorithm.
Mass – the algorithm is not intended for one-time solution of a problem, but for multiple solution of problems of the same type, at different values of the initial data.
Performance – after a finite number of steps, the algorithm always leads to a result, with acceptable initial data. Effectiveness means achieving the desired result in a final time.
Discreteness – the algorithm is represented by clearly distinguishable elements that make up its respective steps.
Programming
Programming is the use of commands to communicate with a computer. The commands are arranged and executed one after the other or in parallel with other commands. The series of commands forms a computer program. The computer program is translated to machine code by translators. Translators – program components that ensure the execution of programs – compilers and interpreters. The microprocessor (CPU) executes the machine code and returns the result of the program execution.
Programming languages:
high level – C#, Java, Python;
intermediate level – C++;
low level – Assembler.
Recommended References for this Lecture
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